bgthomaswriter

What a gorgeously shot, well-acted, but totally stupid movie. I want my time back. I could have watched a test pattern. Not as big a waste of time as Darren Aronofsky's piece of crap, "Mother!" But it is in the same ballpark. Do not waste your time. Please!

Ever watch one of those movies that could not decide what it wanted to be? Well that was "The Void." I could barely pay attention. It was filled with terrible acting, very bad make up effects, it jumped from what movie it was trying to be to some other movie and then back again. The only surprises were because they didn't make any sense and were thrown in just to surprise you. Bad. Really, really bad. Please save your time and your brain. Do not watch. The only thing I liked about it was Aaron Poole as Daniel Carter, and he wasn't very good. Which is odd because he was quite good in "Strange Empire" showing that the best of actors can suffer from a bad director. But we saw that with Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman in "The Phantom Menace...."

I demanded my money back and wouldn't leave the theatre until I got it back. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS MOVIE! This is what I call an "Emperor's New Clothes," movie. People will be afraid that this was something significant and deeply intelligent and they didn't get it so they will say they thought it was brilliant, when in fact it took a child to say, "Hey! the King is naked!" and finally the people in the crowd said, "Yes!" and "He's right!"

And that is what this movie is. Naked. Nothing. Lots of special effects and images and stuff to back time-misplaced Beatniks say, "Oh! But this is a dazzling expose and analogy of the nature of the relationship between humankind of God. In fact it is nothing. It is absolutely NOTHING. Anyone could have strung a lot of dialogue together and told us it means something. In fact at first I thought it was like that episode of Monty Python where the guest keep showing up and won't leave.

As the credits rolled I accidentally cried out, "What a piece of crap," and a bunch and people called at comments like, "Yes!" and "He's right!" The Emperor is naked.

This movie made me feel pummeled and intellectually raped. I would have rather watched preview for two hours than watch this movie.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

So I have loved time machine stories since I was a kid and saw the classic adaptation of the book written by HG Wells. I am pretty picky about them. I notice when they get all kinds of things wrong. This show? Well, I've only seen two episodes but I was really impressed. And I am hard to impress with time machine stories. Slowly but surely, there are all kinds of layers being uncovered and the "villain" just might be a good guy. Or is he? Maybe he's just crazy? Whatever the outcome, I'm going to keep watching. The cast is very good except for Paterson Joseph, as the man who made the time machine in the first place. Terrible, terrible over-acting. WAY over the top. It shocks me out of each episode when he is on the screen. I have to be slowly melded back into the episodes. Painful. But for the rest? I like it. Quite a bit! I hope there will be a second season!

NetFlix! You should be ashamed! After such intelligent comedies like "Grace and Frankie," you give us this? I mean the only reason I realized there wasn't a 1970s laugh track was the cheering when Rita Manero walked on stage—who was shockingly disappointing.

The show was all cheap jokes and throwaway lines and corny. Justina Machado as the mother was appallingly bad, and her character was even worse. Bonnie Franklin must be rolling in her grave. The original role was about a woman showing she could do anything she set her mind to and how women did not need to be defined by men. Ms Machado's character is...I don't even know what. Ill-defined at best. Cheesy. A stereotype.

Ironic that the role of Franklin/Ann Romano was taken on by the daughter on the show, Isabella Gomez. In the opening episode, she is being pressured into a quinceañero, a celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday. She doesn't want to do it because she considers it misogynistic and reduces women to the role of chattel.

And Mom doesn't like it! Doesn't like *everything* the original show stood for! And then I was stunned to find out that it was Norman Lear who rebooted this fiasco. The original show was about important biting issues and the changing roles of women in society. This? It certainly isn't saying anything important about the Latino community. I was appalled. Everything that was powerful and ground breaking about the original show has been turned into a farce bordering on racism.

For shame NetFlix! For shame Mr. Lear. For shame everyone involved!

Brilliant little movie that is sad and funny and seems almost improvised. A collage of the last year in the life of the "matriarch" of a family. Jesse Plemons plays David, a son who is having the worse year of his life. His dreams of being a comedy writer are not coming true, he's broken up with his boyfriend of five years, his father won't acknowledge he's gay even after ten years, and his mother is dying, Sounds pretty dreary, huh?

And it is so sad to watch Molly Shannon as the mother as she slowly dies and deals with the ravages of chemotherapy and the depression that life is going on on on without out her.

And yet this little gem is out-standing. There are so many little moments that say so much about life, growing, family, acceptance, reaching out, discovery, and more. One scene after another that tells the story *of* life. From beautiful to silly to painful to triumphant.

The short short scene where David tries to order three medium chocolate shakes without whipped cream—and then you have to be paying attention to see him sit down with his parents with three shakes—with whipped cream. This movie really is something I will have to watch again. The final shot is what gave me hope—that life, no matter what, does go on, and maybe, just maybe, it will be okay.

This is quite simply one of the worst animated movies I have ever seen. It was just plain stupid. The animation was more or less awful. The voices poor. The script was quite simply abysmal. The timing of every "joke" was off. So many of them just went flat. The father character was bizarre. The principle looked like and came across like a child molester. And Frosty acted as if he were brain damaged in some pre-movie accident.

Awful. Just awful. The only good thing was its relationship with the classic Christmas special. I hope you read this before watching the movie. Don't waste your time!

For once, a rather low budget film done in the style of "captured" on film, that didn't leave me cold!

Was it horror? In the broadest sense of the word, yes.

Spooky and trippie? Yes

I think rather brilliant in a way....

A pair of high school kids (one with an agenda) rig a neighbor's house to make it look like it is haunted. And as the IMDb blurb goes on to say... "While keeping his every reaction under surveillance, they see much more than they bargained for." And howdy!

Well done, well acted, well made, a good twist I didn't see coming.... If you like creepy but totally plausible movies, don't miss it!

I would watch it again!

Terrible, awful movie starring Pau Masó as Aleksandr, a character I couldn't care less for. Apparently, I was supposed to feel sorry for, but I soon didn't. Poor, poor Aleksandr, who had all these terrible things happen to him, abandonment, dead mother, and more. But any sympathy I had for him was soon lost. I got so tired of that pathetic expression on his face through the entire movie I wanted to scream!

Yeah, yeah, prostitution is bad, and it leads to all sex-workers wanting to kill themselves. Whatever. Except I think Dan Savage for one would disagree.

Poor rambling script. Poor acting. Annoying "hero" who cried and threw up so many times I wanted to scream. Mediocre acting. I don't even think the main actor's accent was real. Poor filming. Poor sound. Only Josh Berresford as Keith (the client with a heart of silver, if not gold) was really any good and even his part was cliché—he had to struggle to get anything decent out of the part he was given. The therapist was decent but we don't even know how our guy got there. Keith Dougherty was absolutely terrible—and his part worse as he made no sense. Was he a nice guy or a jerk? Who knows? Did even the writer?

The twist ending was ridiculous. And the sudden turn around after that in about two minutes totally unbelievable.

I also highly suspect the couple good reviews for this movie. I'm not saying they're fake, but I wouldn't be surprised. They praised a bad film so highly, I can't help but be suspect. Brilliant? Not in any way. What a total waste of my time! I'm downright angry. And while one reviewer's thought that he wished the protagonist would just kill himself seems harsh? Well.... I sure stopped caring about the "hero." So hmmmmm.....

How did I not know about this movie?? Thank goodness for a list of "The 24 Best Halloween Films on Netflix!"

Lush and gorgeous, this is one of those rare films that makes you believe. Makes you say, what if vampires were real?

The acting was wonderful from major actor to walk-on. The direction was amazing, but it was Neil Jordan, who directed "Interview with the Vampire." So of course it was good. The music was enthralling. The cinematography stunning. The characters real. The story held together, with just enough wrapped up and just enough left to mystery to have left me very satisfied.

Oh what a film! I will watch it over and over! I loved it and don't regret staying up until 2:30 in the morning to watch it.

Simply brilliant!

If you like truly different vampire movies, and a movie that isn't just silly blood and gore, then this is for you. Simply a Do Not Miss!

I am not ever sure why I gave this movie a shot—so many exorcism movies are just retreads of other, better movies. Perhaps it was the length (only about 90 minutes). Perhaps it was a few of the stars, like Colm Meaney, Adrain Paul and Tom Wright—all so very good. Whatever the reason it was a huge waste of time.

I try not to write bad reviews, but this film really was terrible. I kept falling asleep. It was full of action, lots and lots of the possessed star—Ellen Hollman as Emily Blair—acting like a demon and starling and hissing, and lots of gore too. But it was just silly, and despite all the stuff that was going on, I was bored to tears. Even the actors I mentioned above were sub-par, which is sad, because they are such good actors. Maybe it was the directing by Joseph P. Genier? Or was it simply that the script was so bad that no one, not director or stars, could do anything with it? So blasé. So stereotypical. So sensationalistic. Right down to the part where Meaney, as the priest, tells Emily Blair's husband that the church just doesn't do exorcisms anymore.

I wonder how they got Larry Drake—the John Doe of the film in a very small part—to be in this? To do his first film in years? He was actually kind of scary, but he is in and out of the film way too fast for our own good.

Please don't waste your time on this movie. Because it really is a waste of time. How sad.

What a lovely little movie. Wow. Simple. Yet, very intense. Three couples go away for a weekend to an island home and very intense issues are brought to the surface. Seeing how they dealt with those issues was that all too real human story of this film. A gay couple, a lesbian couple and a straight couple. Their stories were very real, I believed in them totally, and there was not a lack-luster performance. I mean all were TOP-notch. I had not heard of any of these people and I don't think I've ever seen them in anything. This film only proves to me that there is no reason to have a movie with crappy acting. There are thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of excellent out-of-work actors out there. Why film a movie with anything less than excellence? I will watch this movie again. And I will be looking for movies by the people who wrote this one!

Well...I was worried at first because of the film/lighting quality…and I wound up loving this little movie! Very soon—and this is a first for me— the "low" quality became a "character" in the film for me and I thought it worked brilliantly. It made it so real. The whole movie felt real and it almost seemed at times that I was a voyeur, somehow invisible the very real people in this story. It was like it was happening as I was watching. The dialogue was so real and I have to wonder if some of it was stream of consciousness writing. As if maybe some of the actors were given free reign to just talk at the big party that was the setting for the movie. And almost all of the actors were terrific, with only two falling short as far as I was concerned, and I am not even going to say their names. Why bother? And Will, the star and co-writer, was incredible as well as gorgeous. I am going to find more of his movies. I just kept thinking over and over, this is real. Not just the classic movie were a ton of people show up and deliver lines. These guys felt real. It had a few of the classic tropes—and at the risk of giving spoilers—there is the evil straight relative that thinks the hero of the story isn't normal and needs to be fixed, a cheating lover, fear of commitment—but there is a reason those tropes exist. They work. And in this case, they are often a part of life, gay or otherwise. In the end, while this movie was a "gay" movie, this was simply a movie about people. And I loved it.

So do you suppose there is a way for me to sue Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon, the directors of this staggeringly boring movie, for my time back? This film was rambling, boring, pointless. I wondered if this even had a script and they just let the actors improvise. Nothing was solved. Nothing resolved. I finally kept fast-forwarding through it hoping that something would happen. The actors were cute and seemed to be able to act. But I certainly won't be looking out for anything by these directors again. What a waste of my time. What is it with gay movies that the creators seem to think they have to get artsy-fatsy? Straight love films have a beginning, middle and end. Why can't a gay movie?

What a great movie. I was feeling down and blue and wanted to watch something that would make me feel better. And BOY did I choose a perfect picture. I love how it tells us that all of us, no matter who and what we are, often feel confused and wondering about our place in the world. Ricky just has it a little harder than most of us. Even me, a gay man. I was especially happy that a real transgendered actress played the part of Ricky. This is a pretty powerful story. It's not a ten, but it is pretty darned close! I will be watching out for more movies directed (and written) by Eric Schaeffer and movies staring Michelle Hendley.

Is it a spoiler when I say this movie left me depressed?

If you want to watch a seemingly endless rambling movie that is depressing, then I highly recommend The Seminarian. If on the other hand you don't want to waste one hour and 41 minutes where when you get to the end you sit there wondering why anyone would even make such a film—then I don't recommend it. My guess is that the author of this piece is a very unhappy man and wants you do be as well. Like, "Love is a curse from God and why should I be the only one that suffers? I want my audience to suffer as well." This film was not for me and I am pretty angry that Josh Middleton of GPhilly recommended it. I wish I could sue to get my time back. I obviously won't watch anything else he recommends or that Joshua Lim, the writer and director, makes. I don't need my every movie to have a happy go lucky happily ever after ending...but God. It's a good thing I'm not suicidal!

First: Acting—some of it was good and some pretty bad. The husband was pretty good, the wife? I've seen better high school actors. The Bad Guy was believable before we knew he was a bad guy, then he got cheesy and I winced at his evil laugh. The cop was adequate.

Second: Production values were surprisingly good. Night filming is very difficult and this movie did it beautifully. Direction was pretty good as well.

Now SPOILERS!

The ending made no sense. It was like a Twilight Zone ending was added. There was no resolution. There was no explaining why the Bad Guy knew who Erin was. We kept thinking the bad guy must be Erin's angry husband. And why would the Bad Guy give the couple a flare gun??? It just didn't make sense. Coitus interruptus is what it was.

But the WORST was that we were supposed to believe it was winter and days before Christmas and that the car might need chains on the tires, yet the trees were covered in green foliage! We never saw breath frosting from the character's mouths—nothing! And it would have been easily solved, at least the green leaves, by saying it was a freakishly early cold snap—We had a lot of snow the third weekend in October here in the Midwest. It totally detracted from the film for me and was a story element that just wasn't necessary. It would have been fine without the "cold" storyline.

The thing is that I still saw lots of promise with this director and will be watching out for him in the future.

So I was looking forward to this and it was a great idea...but I am having trouble holding my attention. It's slow. Really slow. There's an episode where they are (this might be considered a spoiler--so PLEASE stop if you consider very minor things a spoiler!) heading into a radiation storm and have minutes left and the guy who can rescue them is walking so slow to where he needs to go he could almost be walking backward. There was no sense of urgency at all. So if that fast parts are slow, imagine how slow the slow parts are.... What REALLY hurts the show is Brad Carter as John Stokes. He is quite simply one of the worst actors I've ever seen in my entire life and I'm no pup. I have seen grade school productions where the acting was better. He overacts so terribly that he keeps jerking me out of the show and I go and do a crossword puzzle or something. Just not sure I can watch the whole show. But it was a cool idea!

I will admit the first episode is kind of "meh." I wasn't thrilled. I mean this was Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda! It should have been rolling funny.

It wasn't. And the second episode? Well...

But then!! OMGosh!

By the third episode the writers and cast and crew had found their stride and I was in love. So clever! So funny! So sweet! So engaging! Yes, that is a lot of explanation points but I couldn't help it. The show deserves them all.

Lily is simply wonderful as Frankie. I mean I fell in love with her. I want her as my BFF. Fonda was wonderful as well as the uptight Grace. She could have played it as a cliché but I was happy to find myself slowly warming up her as the episodes passed. In other words, Fonda showed up the person beneath the outer shell.

I liked Sheen but was crazy about Waterston playing the men who leave their wives to be with each other.

I wasn't crazy about some of the kids, but that wasn't the actor's faults. They did great. I just didn't find them very likable people. But again that was all right.

For instance is Brooklyn Decker cold as Mallory--but she was a chip off her old mother (Fonda). And Fonda's other daughter, June Diane Raphael as Brianna, is a bit of a bit*h. But again, she was a product of a mother who was never there and very self involved.

I did however love Ethan Embry as Coyote (one of Tomlin's adopted kids). He is a recovering addict of all kinds and my heart went out to him. The only member of the cast that I was cold to was Baron Vaughn as Nwabudike (the other adopted son). I don't want to be mean but he was terrible. He approached his character as if this show were a 70s sitcom and not a Netflix dramedy--his acting over the top. He jolted me out of the story every time.

I really hope this show comes back for a second season. I loved it!